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Thankful to my friend KC Huang and his student @craftmism for their excellent commentary on our recent @PNAS paper demonstrating #cdiGMP regulates curvature in V. cholerae. Wanted to share a bit about this work: /1 https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/11/16/2021127117
The project was led by @NicoFernandez30 with @hsueh_brian in my lab and @NhuNguyenTQ and Josh Franklin in @dufourya lab, all @mmg_msu /2
The project started when Nico noticed that cells with high #cdiGMP were straight and not the classical curve shape. Lesson #1: Be observant-often the coolest things you find are those that you were not looking for /3
Nico deduced that the same transcriptional regulators that control biofilm formation in response to #cdiGMP also regulate cell shape. Lesson #2: Understanding mechanistic detail can illuminate biological relevance /4
Based on Zemer Gitai's and colleagues work discovering CrvA as the mediator of V. cholerae curvature, Nico made constitutive curved and straight cells. Lesson #3: We all build upon the scientific foundation that was laid before us /5
Indeed, straight cells formed normal biofilm microcolonies while locked curved cells produced dispersive attached cells! Lesson #4: Having a phenotype for a biological function is awesome. /6
@dufourya and @NhuNguyenTQ showed that constitutive curved cells were 6% faster than straight cells, providing a rationale for why V. cholerae is curved. Lesson #5: Good collaborators are essential for making new insight. /7
My PhD advisor Gary Dunny at Minnesota, hearing this project informed me that Minnesota microbiologist Arthur Henrici had noted ~100 years ago different morphologies of V. cholerae during growth. Lesson #6: Listen to your mentors-they never stop teaching you things. /8
Nico then tracked down this amazing image made by Henrici of different Vibrio morphologies during growth from his 1928 book “ Morphologic variation and the rate of growth of bacteria.” Scooped by 100 years! /9
In a cool tie back, the Henrici library at the U Minnesota, where I had meetings as a graduate student, displays many images of Henrici’s work on cell morphology! Lesson #7: The Microbiology world is small (pun intended) and interconnected in surprising and cool ways. /10
What we found Henrici already predicted as stated in this quote from his book. Final lesson: The pioneers in the field still have much to teach us-listen to them! /11
Correction for the first tweet, KC's student who wrote the article summary is Heidi Arjes @craftimism. Thank you Heidi! /12
